Healthcare Intelligence: Turing Data Into Knowledge

Yang, H., Kundakcioglu, E., Li, J., Wu, T., Mitchell, J. R., Hara, A., Tsui, K.-L. (2014). Healthcare Intelligence: Turning Data into Knowledge. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 29(3), 54—68. doi:10.1109/MIS.2014.45

Summary

The United States spends close to 17% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, a figure which is expected to grow to 19.5 % by 2017. Although advancements in health information technologies have led to big data environments in hospitals, extracting meaningful information - i.e. data which assists decision makers in making better decisions and increasing the efficiency of the healthcare systems - is still a challenging task.

This is also reflected in recent

1. initiatives from the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) and
2. research programs announced by (i) the National Institutes of Health (NIH), (ii) the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ), and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) which seek research in data mining and health informatics, and specifically projects which address the knowledge gaps regarding our understanding of healthcare provider's information needs and healthcare decision making processes.